U.S. bishops expect Vatican response

ROME (AP) - The leader of the U.S.'s Roman Catholic bishops arrived in Rome on Saturday to receive the Vatican's response to the bishops' new sex abuse policy.

Separately, an American cardinal said he thought the Vatican would accept the policy - but with some exceptions because some of the proposals may conflict with universal church law.

Bishop Wilton Gregory, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, made no comment to reporters at Rome's Leonardo da Vinci airport, where he arrived for a week of regularly scheduled meetings with Vatican officials.

During the week, though, he is expected to receive the Vatican's response to the policy drawn up by American bishops in the wake of a wave of sex abuse claims and reports that bishops and other prelates covered up the wrongdoing.

The provisions, approved by the bishops in June, include requiring dioceses to remove all guilty priests from church work, and, in some instances, from the priesthood itself.

The plan also demands that bishops report abuse of minors to civil authorities. The Vatican traditionally allows local bishops to have autonomy in handling their dioceses.

A senior Vatican official said the Vatican has been leaning toward accepting the reforms on an experimental basis, then monitoring how the plan is working, despite concerns of a possible conflict with church law.

Cardinal Francis George of Chicago, who was also in Rome on Church business this weekend, said he expected the Vatican to accept the policy - albeit with some possible exceptions.

U.S. church lawyers have questioned whether the plan violates the due process rights of accused clergy and whether the diocesan lay review boards mandated in the plan had too much authority.

"There have to be some exceptions to the canon law if that proposal is to hold as it was passed," Cardinal George said.